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RE “A regular Tea Party" (Jeff Jacoby, Op-ed, April 14): It’s my understanding that some of America’s founders opposed the Bill of Rights because of its possible implication that government can properly meddle in any activity not shown on the list. Now that Congress has extended childhood to age 26 and designated families making less than $88,200 as eligible for the public dole, I can see why they were worried.

Clearly, a government that spends $1 trillion a year more than it collects in taxes — and plans to do so for the foreseeable future — lacks self-restraint. It has liberated itself from any limits imagined by dead white males, including the laws of arithmetic.

Perhaps the Tea Party movement can spark a conversation about the ideas that built our country and where we’re heading as we abandon them. Or maybe we just need another Big Speech. Could we get one from James Madison?